Watsons straddles online and offline to enhance customer experience

WATSONS Thailand, a leading beauty and wellness retailer, yesterday revealed its 2019 vision to drive “customer connectivity”, with a connection between online and offline, to excite customers and adapt to their changing lifestyles.

Pasitt Munkongkuntivong, general manager of Watsons Thailand, said the company is moving towards bridging the online and offline shopping experience this year by connecting and meeting the needs of digital era customers.

“In 2018, we saw a continuous expansion of both Watsons physical stores and e-commerce, as well as solid progress in the O+O (online and offline) experience enhancement. In 2019, Watsons aims to continue pushing the integration of the offline and online shopping experiences and fulfil the lifestyle needs of Watsons customers through the O+O strategy,” said Pasitt.

“Since last year, e-commerce sales have grown 248 per cent because we provide a wide range of trustworthy products and always provide the best deal with the convenience of 24-hour access, convenient payment options and strong social connectivity,” Pasitt said

This year, Watsons will take a bold step in improving the digital experience, customer centricity, in-store technology and engagement by developing a Watsons application, increasing the wide range of products, providing promotions as well as multi-payment channels, he said.

Pasitt said that Watsons has also launched its new concept store, G8, which uses technology to enhance customer experience. G8 stores are now open at three major shopping centres in Bangkok: Iconsiam, Siam Square and the Mall Bangkapi.

The highlight of the G8 store is StyleMe, an augmented reality-enabled (AR) technology that offers virtual makeup service and product recommendations.

In 2019, Watsons will increase its investment budget to over Bt630 million to improve customers’ shopping experience, including the expansion of its physical stores, he said.

“We [Watsons] are continuing to expand our new stores to cover all of Thailand. After celebrating 500 stores in 2018, we will open another 50 stores by the end of the year. Along with the new store expansion, Watsons will refit approximately 75 existing stores,” he said, adding that all the new expansions this year will be G8 concept stores.